Wimba

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New Wimba Classroom technology being used at Marshall allows students to interact with professors, class online

Software makes education accessible

by Mary J. Lewis
For the Daily Mail

HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—Technology is changing education at Marshall University.

Now students don’t have to be on campus in Huntington or South Charleston to participate in some classes. Neither do the professors.

They can take the classroom experience anywhere in the world because of software called Wimba.

“This is a big tool in our arsenal to make education accessible to more people,” said Laura J. Little, director of Marshall’s Center for Instructional Technology.

Online classes have existed for years. Often they consist of lectures broadcast online from a classroom.

Wimba, which is also being used at West Virginia University, transforms online learning from observation to participation.

With it students logged in remotely can become involved in discussions and group exercises, chat with their peers and even raise their hands to ask questions during class.

“I can have students from anywhere in the world,” said Tracy Christofero, an associate professor of technology management at Marshall’s South Charleston campus.

Students in her classes have the option to attend sessions from either the Huntington or South Charleston campuses - or from an airport in Thailand or from a Starbucks in Clarksburg.

And with the ability to archive sessions, students can attend class anytime they need as well.

Christofero said that will be especially important to her many international students.

Dwayne Walker logged into her class recently from his workplace. “I wanted to try out the technology and didn’t have time to make it to class from downtown.”

Professor Marty Laubach happens to teach a course in the sociology of technology.

“I personally have been resistant to the electronic classes, the distance classes we have, because to me the dynamic of the classroom is important,” he said.

Wimba changed his mind. In August he became one of the first Marshall professors to use the software and even offered his Sociology of Technology course in Huntington as a testing ground.

“This system is our future,” said Laubach, who teaches two classes via Wimba and is developing more. “It’s critical because it allows nontraditional students to take their classes.”

Those students may include people juggling travel, jobs or children’s schedules - or all three.

Little noted that one professor decided to try Wimba because two students were reticent about making the weekly two-hour commute.

“It really is all about the students and trying to find every possible way to help students,” she said.

Christofero added that Wimba lets students continue their studies if they have to move or travel for their jobs. “Several wouldn’t be able to complete their degree otherwise.”

The technology provides “so many possibilities to get people back to school,” she said. “It gives them a lot more flexibility.”

Professors have to adapt as well, Laubach said.

He said he usually walks around a lot during his classes. Using Wimba, he couldn’t do that, because the system uses a standard, stationary Webcam.

The “eye of Sauron” came to Laubach’s rescue. Not the evil entity from “The Lord of the Rings,” but a tracking camera with its own impish quirks. He said the camera, which is basically in a ball, sometimes strays from him to somewhere random. Much to his students’ amusement, he waves or calls to get its attention back on him.

Humor and tolerance work wonders when dealing with any new technology’s bugs, both he and Christofero noted.

Many of her graduate technology management students work or have worked in the field. They are used to working out the bugs with new software in their own workplaces.

Christofero said they actually enjoy relish any of her hiccups with Wimba because it’s a real-world situation.

Marshall’s chief technology officer, Allen R. Taylor, said one hour is usually all that’s needed to train professors on basic Wimba use. Advanced functions may take another hour.

But students don’t have to be tech-savvy to use the system. They simply have to log in. Well, after they get connected via the Internet. Little said there have been bugs with that.

Once in the system, students see a screen broken up into several sections. One shows the person talking or the classroom. The main section may show a PowerPoint presentation, video or a virtual whiteboard. At the bottom are a list of those logged in and a chat section. To ask a question, a student clicks on a hand icon then presses “talk” when called upon.

Students have adapted the system for their own benefit, Christofero said. In-class students are bringing laptops in and logging into Wimba just so they can interact with the remote students. Therefore, both sets of students can participate in group exercises through virtual “break-out rooms” that the professor can visit.

Little said she is not surprised that in-class students are logging into Wimba.

“I think people want the best of both worlds,” she said. “They want that personal connection. But we have powerful tools too.”

Such tools can save money in the long run - for students and Marshall. Taylor said students last summer expressed interest in taking online classes because of high gas prices.

This summer Christofero will teach international technology management solely via Wimba. Students can take the course from anywhere in the world, and she can teach it from her garden, she joked.

Christofero pointed out that the university would not have to spend money on a classroom or utilities then.

But Wimba’s true value lays in the flexibility it offers, she said.

Little added, “With Wimba, professors have the opportunity to have guest speakers from anywhere in the world. It helps bring the world to Marshall or Marshall to the world.”

Read this article on Charleston Daily Mail site.